Race Report: Menlo Park Grand Prix, Menlo Park, CA

After some repairs and recovery from yesterday, I was ready for a good race today. Unfortunately, the weather decided otherwise. It was about 8 C in the middle of an absolute downpour. Demoralized and afraid of rain after yesterday, my only goal was to not crash. At least the guys who did race, for once, raced like gentlemen, instead of pushy jerks.

I'm not racing crits in the rain anymore, unless they're part of a stage race or something. They are a waste of time and money at best.

This really seems to be the year of stupid crashes. Rasaan Bahati crashed out of the Dana Point crit this weekend as well.

I'm skipping Sea Otter and the Santa Cruz crit next weekend, in favor of an Old La Honda Road PR attempt.

My goal for this season is to upgrade to Cat 1. To do this, I need to find races that don't force me to race against the best Pros and 1s in California. I'm focusing on smaller races, and stage races with Cat 2 only fields (i.e. Fitchburg and Green Mountain). Once I become a Cat 1, I'll start doing some bigger races for fun, and slowly work to start winning them.

I'll race again in two weekends at the WCCC crit, and the Wente crit. I expect all the teams to be occupied with the Wente road race so I hope to do well at the WCCC crit. The Wente crit will be another Pro-1-2 crit: unless I work with a team, I'm pack fodder.